A Rome judge on Monday suspended a trial of four Egyptian security officers in the January-February 2016 abduction, torture and murder in Cairo of Italian student Giulio Regeni due to lack of cooperation from Egyptian authorities in locating the four to serve notice they have been indicted.
The preliminary hearings judge (GUP) ordered ROS special branch Carabinieri to carry out fresh efforts to track down the four, while Regeni's parents urged Premier Mario Draghi to intervene.
The next hearing in the case was set for October 10.
The GUP described the Cairo prosecutor-general's arguments as to why the defendants cannot be found as "wholly specious", adding that "the Egyptian authorities' refusal to cooperate is now a proven fact".
On October 10 the GUP will hear from the justice ministry's judicial affairs office chief Nicola Russo on possible developments after the statement sent by the Egyptians following a meeting on March 15.
There has been "no cooperation whatsoever" from Egyptian authorities on the alleged abduction, torture and murder in Cairo in early 2016 of Italian Cambridge University doctoral researcher Regeni, according to a justice ministry note issued for Monday's hearing into the four Egyptian security officers accused in the case.
The note described the stance of Egyptian authorities as one of "total closure" on the case of the 28-year-old Friuli-born researcher into Egyptian street-seller unions, who was tortured so badly his mother said she only recognised him by the tip of his nose.
A lawyer representing Regeni's parents, Claudio Regeni and Paola Deffendi, asked "Premier Draghi, sharing our indignation, to demand, without any ifs or buts, the defendants to divulge their domiciles" so they can be served.
"We take note of the justice ministry's failed attempts to obtain concrete collaboration from the Egyptian authorities and we are saddened and indignant at the response from the el-Sisi regime's prosecutor who is continuing to thumb his nose at our institutions and our legal system.
"Today was the umpteenth mockery." The lawyer, Alessandra Ballerini, said the Regeni's were now hoping Draghi's intervention could help achieve progres sin the case.
Italy has been trying to notify the four officers of their indictments in order for the case to proceed with their trial in absentia, which ran into a brick wall last year after Cairo refused to help locate them.
The fresh hearing before the GUP was expected to say whether the case can nonetheless go ahead again or not.
Regeni, whose research topic was a politically sensitive issue, was tortured for days, resulting in "acute physical suffering" by being subjected to kicks, punches, beaten with sticks and bats and cut with sharp objects, and also being burned with red-hot objects and slammed into walls, Rome prosecutors say.
His neck was then snapped in a fatal blow.
At various times Egypt has advanced differing explanations for Regeni's death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.
Lack of cooperation on the case by Egypt led to Rome's temporarily withdrawing its ambassador from Cairo for a spell.
The Regenis have appealed to the EU for help in finding the truth about their son's slaying and have condemned continued Italian arms sales to Egypt including two frigates.
In mid-February, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, European Commission Spokesperson Dana Spinant said the EU has asked and continues to ask for full cooperation from the Egyptian authorities with the Italian authorities in investigating the circumstances of Regeni's death.
National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, were on trial at the third Court of Assizes in Rome in October when a judge ruled the trial could not proceed because they had not been served notice of it.
Hence the continued Italian efforts to contact them and inform them they have been indicted.
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